Cecília Jorge
Reporter - Agencia Brasil

Brasilia – Approximately 300 people participated, this Monday (9), in Port-au-Prince (Haiti), on a ceremony in the honor of the Brazilian General Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, the military commander of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), since last September, who died this Saturday. The United Nations Organization (UN) arranged the ceremony.

According to the battalion’s press officer, lieutenant colonel Fernando Cunha Mattos, the body of the General, which was expected to be sent to Brazil after the ceremony, will remain in Haiti for an undetermined time, until an eight-person Brazilian mission, sent to investigate the case, concludes its works.

Bacellar was found dead last Saturday (7) of a gunshot wound, in the hotel where he lived in Port-au-Prince. The circumstances of the death are not clear yet. According to Mattos, it was a "firearm accident".

Brazil commands the MINUSTAH since June 2004. The 1,200 Brazilian soldiers in Haiti are the largest group ever sent abroad by Brazil, since World War II. The UN Security Council authorized military presence in the Haiti peace mission to ensure the country’s stability, following the removal of ex President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Translation: Andréa Alves